Hidden Epidemics Within Indian Boarding Schools #NABS

This webinar by the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition (NABS) explores hidden epidemics within the U.S. Indian boarding school system. This event features guest speaker Dr. Preston McBride (Comanche by descent), and is moderated by NABS Research Assistant Joe Tahdooahnippah (Comanche).

American Indian Boarding Schools: The Michigan Anishinaabe Experience (October 5)

Stamps Gallery’s panel discussion with Benedict Hinmon and Rochelle Ettawageshik supports its major exhibition of renowned black ash basket weavers.

University of Michigan, Stamps School of Art & Design 20 hours ago

Kelly Church, “Before and After” (2024) (photo by Michigan Photography)

On the occasion of the major exhibition showcasing renowned black ash basket weavers, Kelly Church & Cherish Parrish: In Our Words, An Intergenerational Dialogue, Stamps Gallery is proud to organize an important public discussion on the tragic legacy of American-Indian Boarding Schools in the United States and the intergenerational trauma and suffering they inflicted on Indigenous communities. Church and Parrish explore the consequences of this time through their boundary-breaking basketry as they pay homage to their community’s resilience, strength, and bravery. 

Taking place at Stamps Gallery in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on October 5 from 2 to 4pm (EDT), American Indian Boarding Schools: The Michigan Anishinaabe Experience will include the following speakers and moderators:

Rochelle Ettawageshik is a citizen of the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians and serves as vice chair of the tribe’s child welfare commission. She currently sits on the board of directors for the National Indian Child Welfare Association and is vice president of the Michigan Indian Education Council. Ettawageshik recently retired from the State of Michigan as the director of Native American Affairs in the Child and Family Services Administration, where she developed policies to improve services to American Indian families in Michigan. 

Benedict Hinmon is the Director at Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan. Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians. Mount Pleasant, Michigan. Hinmon is the grandson of Obwaandiak (Chief Pontiac) and comes from a proud family of Michigan Anishinaabe. 

Matthew L.M. Fletcher is the Harry Burns Hutchins Collegiate Professor of Law at Michigan Law. He teaches and writes in the areas of federal Indian law, American Indian tribal law, Anishinaabe legal and political philosophy, constitutional law, federal courts, and legal ethics. He also sits as the chief justice of the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians, the Poarch Band of Creek Indians, and the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians. 

Wenona T. Singel is an Associate Professor of Law at Michigan State University College of Law and the Director of the Indigenous Law & Policy Center. Her research and writing address issues related to Tribal Sovereignty and Indigenous Rights. She is working on a book about the intergenerational impact of federal Indian law and policy on Native families. 

Learn more and register for the panel.

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Kelly Church & Cherish Parrish: In Our Words, An Intergenerational Dialogue

On view through December 7, this exhibition centers the subjectivities of two contemporary Indigenous artists whose practices have sustained and bolstered the relevance of the age-old Anishinaabe practice of black ash basket-making in the 21st century. Kelly Church and Cherish Parrish explore the themes of Native women’s labor as carriers of culture, the legacy of boarding schools, treaties, and stories from ancestors who walked on through their work.

Curated by Srimoyee Mitra with Curatorial Assistant Zoi Crampton. 

This exhibition and its associated programs are generously funded by Michigan Humanities and U-M Arts Initiative. 

All programs are free and open to the public.

For more information, visit stamps.umich.edu.

 

 

Committed to Investigating Abuses at 523 BOARDING SCHOOLS (USA)

 

Thursday, February 8, 2024

This week, U.S. Reps. Sharice Davids (Ho-Chunk/D-KS) and Tom Cole (Chickasaw/R-OK) reintroduced legislation to investigate, document, and report on the histories of Indian boarding schools and their long-term impacts on tribal communities.

The bill has been endorsed by the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition (NABS).

NABS CEO Deborah Parker talked about the legislation at the 2023 White House Tribal Nations Summit.

“It’s much needed to help us tell the story, help us understand what happened to our Native American children in U.S. boarding schools. And we deserve, America deserves, not only Native Americans, but students, but people, any human being who is living today deserves to understand the truth about what happened in the United States.”

Parker says they’re seeking records and information from both the federal government and churches that ran the schools.

“We know parents are still looking for children to this day, their relatives who never came home. Most of the parents are no longer with us, but there are elders who have brothers and sisters, siblings, cousins who never made it home from the boarding school. So, they are missing. We’re trying to help families locate their loved ones…we still know our communities have, we have broken systems within our communities because we don’t know where our loved ones are.”

The legislation would establish a formal commission to investigate federal Indian boarding school policies, develop recommendations for federal entities to help with healing efforts, and provide a forum for victims to speak.

Reps. Davids and Cole, co-chairs of the Congressional Native American Caucus, say they’re committed to investigating the abuses at the institutions, which are connected to an estimated 500 student deaths.  (I have seen bigger numbers: 10,000 + who died in the schools)

The Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act of 2024 has also been endorsed by the National Congress of American Indians.

 

Where are they?  Where are all the adoptees? Genocide is hard to document, right? Trace

Voices from Pezihutazizi Oyate: Boarding School Histories

 

As hurtful truths come to light regarding historically operated Federal Indian boarding schools in the United States, many Native Nations are reclaiming their voices. 

For the Upper Sioux Community (“Yellow Medicine Nation”) living in Minnesota, these historical truths are known to have cast profound ripples that impact their present. 

This mini documentary explores community interpretations of this boarding school past and offers hope for justice and healing. 

For a list of self-care and trauma resources, click here.

Continue the discussion and learning by downloading the "Voices from Pezihutazizi Oyate" discussion guide here: http://boardingschoolhealing.org/wp-c...

 

‘I will never forgive this school for what they did to me'

Donald Neconie, 84, Kiowa, testifed on Saturday, July 9, 2022, as part of the U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland's Road to Healing tour of the brutality he suffered while attending Riverside Indian School in Anadarko, Oklahoma, in the 1940s. Haaland, Laguna Pueblo and the first Indigenous person to sit in a presidential cabinet, kicked off the yearlong tour in Anadarko to hear testimony from survivors and descendants of Indian boarding schools. (Photo by Mary Annette Pember/ICT)

Road to Healing: Deb Haaland pledges boarding school truths will be uncovered

WARNING: This story has disturbing details about residential and boarding schools. If you are feeling triggered, here is a resource list for trauma responses from the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition in the US. The National Indian Residential School Crisis Hotline in Canada can be reached at 1-866-925-4419.

Mary Annette Pember |  ICT

ANADARKO, Oklahoma — A journey like no other began at last Saturday for survivors of U.S. Indian boarding schools.

Young and old, descendants and survivors, crowded into the gymnasium of Riverside Indian School in Anadarko, Oklahoma, to share their experiences as the kickoff to U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland’s Road to Healing tour.

Until now, former boarding school students were largely ignored, forced to survive brutality and separation from family, culture and language, and deal with childhood traumas as best they could.

Finally, the world is listening.

“I still feel that pain,” said Donald Neconie, 84, Kiowa, who attended Riverside school in the 1940s.

Neconie, a former U.S. Marine, described physical and sexual abuse at the hands of school employees. School leaders knew of the abuse but did nothing to stop it, he said.

“You couldn’t cry or tell anyone, because if you did, you knew it would be worse,” he said. “I will never forgive this school for what they did to me.”

KEEP READING 

Related stories:
—US boarding school investigative report released
—Native leaders push for boarding school commission
—215 bodies found at residential school in Canada
—A Mother's Pray: Bring the children home

 

Sec Haaland, other leaders testify at U.S. Senate about boarding schools report and investigation

 

Interior Sec. Deb Haaland vows to continue to investigate U.S. Indian boarding schools and support healing efforts for tribal communities impacted by intergenerational trauma caused by the schools.

Many students faced physical, mental, spiritual and sexual abuse. And, many students did not make it back home.

Sec. Haaland testified Wednesday before the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs on the findings of her federal Indian boarding school initiative, which she announced last June.

A report released in May found there were 408 schools across the U.S. from 1819 to 1969, and about 53 marked or unmarked burial sites identified.

Boarding school policies focused on cultural assimilation, and the forced removal and relocation of Native children.

Sec. Haaland says as the investigation continues, the next step is to gather testimony, find support for healing, and resources for language and culture initiatives.

“I recently announced we will embark on the road to healing, a tour to hear directly from survivors and descendants. A necessary part of this journey will be to connect survivors and their families with mental health support, create a permanent collection of oral histories. We know this won’t be easy, but this is a history we must learn from if we are to heal from this tragic era in our country.”

The hearing also focused on Indian boarding school legislation (S. 2907) to create a commission to help locate and analyze records, and hold culturally appropriate hearings.

Sandra White Hawk, board president of the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition, was among a panel of Native leaders to testify in support of the legislation.

“It will open up wounds, but in order for us to heal we need to air out those wounds and replace them with the medicines that we have within our ceremonies, our songs along with our mental health professionals that can help us as well. Most importantly, what was taken from us our songs, our lifeways that will bring the healing when our wounds are open from that. There was an elder that was one of my teachers and he said we are people that are well acquainted with grief. And, I’ve watched and seen that as we’ve gone into communities and listened to experiences and watched healing take place.”

Senators on the Indian Affairs Committee, including chair Brian Schatz (D-HI), vowed to continue to push the boarding school legislation forward and to help find appropriations.

Click here to read the testimonies or watch the hearing